Fire and Water

This week has been rough. This is not the place for all of the details, but sometimes I tend to only share all the happy moments. So, just for the record, I, like everyone else, have some hard things to work through. 

When I was going to therapy, one day my life coach asked me, "what are things that bring you comfort that aren't food?" I sat with that question for a long, long time. At first, I thought of the usual things...a cozy blanket (which I now know the joys of a weighted blanket...Delightful!!), a good book, listening to calm church music. But as I pondered the question, I just felt like the answer was deeper. One day as I was meditating, the answers came to me very clear, I am comforted most by fire and water.  So, this week on my toughest day, I was really grateful for a friend who invited us to go down by the river to roast marshmallows. She doesn't even know she was an answer to my prayers on a day that I was in desperate need of comfort. Fire and water...both at the same time! It was a gift and I found peace there. 

 

Interestingly, I was listening to a podcast, One Minute Scripture Study. Usually, the lessons are really only a couple of minutes long, but every once in a while, they will have a guest speaker and those episodes usually go for about an hour. Usually I skip the hour ones (wink, wink) but this week I had some extra time, so I listened. They talked about many things, but at the end, one of the hosts asked the Guest speaker how she "Hears Him" (meaning Jesus). You'll never guess her answer! She said this is going to sound really weird, but I love to have my feet in water, several times a day I put my feet in water. And if there is ever water near me, I have to put my feet in it. She said, I Hear Him best when I have my feet in water. Sometimes she sits on the edge of her tub with the water running over her feet and that is when her mind is tuned in to the Spirit. 

I'm not totally crazy! I knew exactly what she was talking about! But I have never realized that these are ways for me to Hear Him too. 

Fire and Water!

 

The Babe Went Down to Georgia

 

The Babe has been in Georgia this past week. He and his dad and his brothers flew out there to visit Uncle Nick and Aunt Silvia and their girls. There was an airshow in Vidalia that enticed them down there. These Allred boys love a good airshow. They got to visit Savannah, go to Taibi Island, and stick their toes in the Atlantic Ocean!

They also got to go play with Uncle Nick's night vision goggles! Look at that adorable face! He is having such a good time! I think this trip is good for all of them. 

The Blue Angels....always a highlight! 

The Atlantic Ocean. Which is also a super cool experience. When you think of our Ancestors who traveled across that vast ocean and landed here so many years ago. It's touching to stand on that shore. I can't even express that feeling. My heart swells with gratitude for their courage! 

Goodbyes are always the hardest, but memories were made. I hope The Babe will always treasure this time he enjoyed with his dad and his brothers. I'm sure he will!

The Junior Prom

Today is Adelah's Junior Prom! 

This morning they went over to Gunlock and kayaked and had a picnic. They did some swimming which is a little crazy. It wasn't really warm today. It rained quite a bit yesterday, so it was pleasantly warm, but not hot by any means. And the water in Gunlock is all run-off right now, so it's cold! Bentley was still freezing and shivering when they got back to my house. They said they had a fun time though. 

We had a lady lined up to do Addie's hair for her and she is really good, so we were both excited because if you know me you know that I CANNOT do hair!! It just isn't in my set of abilities. Seriously!! However, our lady called this afternoon and said she was so sorry but had to cancel because her daughter fell and broke her arm and they had to do an emergency surgery on it. I feel so bad for her little girl, and I hope she's okay. But that left me and Leighna to be the hair dressers! AHHH! Not good! 

We called in reinforcements and Aunt Sarah came to save the day!!! Thank goodness she lives close enough to drop everything and come and help us! She did such a great job and Adelah looks so beautiful! (as always of course, but this is a special occasion!)

We got her all gussied up and she just looks so adorable! Bentley had to wait a few minutes while we put on all the finishing touches, but She is worth the wait! 

They're just the cutest couple! Bentley has been dating Addie for over a year and a half. We really enjoy having him around and I'm grateful he is so good to my daughter. He looked so handsome tonight and it just made my little momma heart happy to see the two of them glowing. They are currently still out at the dance and I hope they are having the time of their lives! I really wish the lighting in my house was better because these picture really don't do justice to the dress! It's very shimmery and it's very pretty! 

James Hangsen and his date Ralayna. Ralayna was very nice! I was really impressed with her. James is a fun kid who lives up the street from us. I'm glad they got to be part of Addie's group. 

Emilee Gubler and her date Isaac. Emilee is one of Addie's best friends. They had a good time getting ready for the prom. Yesterday she came over and I waxed her eyebrows...you know I'm a professional, so no pressure. Luckily, she left with two fully intact eyebrows, with no mysterious gaps!! She was impressed with my skills, I'm sure!

Isaac's brother Kaleb and his date Mak were also part of the group. 

This is Emilee's corsage. One of her flowers fell out. We tried to glue it back in, but it just wouldn't stay. I told her I would take a picture and document it so that in the future she would be able to remember how beautiful it was at the beginning of the evening. This is for you Emilee! Documented forever! 

My Elephant Project Update

We took out the old, built-in shelf at the top. Which required new dry wall and dry wall mud (cannot figure out how to spell perfatape! I know that's wrong, but oh well). Then it needed a coat of paint. So,I pulled out a gallon of white paint and painted it. It was not enough to paint the whole wall, just enough to cover the area. Sadly, it looked very grey instead of white. I thought I would just leave it, but Doug (our neighbor) saved the day and had some white paint that was really white! Whew!

Doug works for a company called Classy Closets, so he is the one who installed these beauties for us. Look at all of those shelves!!! I'm so excited! I have been telling The Babe for years that I need a storage room. And look! We created one!!!

Now for baby elephant #4...move it all back in! Ahhh. It has taken me a lot longer to move stuff back in there than to take it out. But it is going to be so SO great to have all of my bottled foods in one place! I can't even tell you how happy I am about this! I have been keeping most of this food under my bed, under my kids' beds, and in our closets. Sometimes it gets old and unused because we forget it's there. I am so excited that it will be where we can use it. Also, we are filtering out all of the old yucky stuff, so everything on my shelves will be fresh and yummy! SO SO HAPPY about this!!!!

April 22nd is the day that The Babe popped the question and I said YES!!

It happened 22 years ago. 

I couldn't wait to be his wife.

We moved up the wedding day.

Best decision EVER!!

I love this man to pieces! He is my best friend! We love doing life together, even when life is hard... most especially when life is hard because I need his strength and he needs mine.

We were babies then. Sometimes it feels like we are babies now! I will never forget Sister Naida Bess used to tell us the first day she met us she wanted to spank our butts and send us home to our mamas! Luckily, we never got that lickin'! 

I'm so grateful for you...Jonathon K Allred. You have my heart, and you always will!! 

 

My Elephant Project

I have taken on a project that is so ginormous, it is literally like trying to eat an elephant. Maybe I should call it that... "My Elephant Project"! This project is to declutter my house. Which sadly, I don't think I have ever gone through my entire house (embarrassing, I know). I really thought that I could accomplish this huge undertaking in a couple weeks. I mean honestly, I don't have a huge house and I can simply do one room a day.

HA HA!

I'm 4 and 1/2 months into my Elephant Project and I still don't feel like I'm even close. And every time I do one thing it leads to another Baby Elephant Project! Ahhhh! 

Anyhow....Baby Elephant Project #1 is to build shelves in my laundry room. I really need a place to put all of my bottled food. I'm building shelves from floor to ceiling and all the way across the wall, as close together as I can. I am hoping there will be enough space to put all of my bottles, because currently I have bottles under almost every bed and in every closet in my house. These shelves should make it easier to see what we have and be able to rotate them better. 

My Elephant actually had triplets, because in order to build the shelves I had to take everything out of the laundry room first! I have been asking myself all day how SO MUCH stuff fit into the smallest room in my house?? Seriously!! So, Baby Elephant Project #2 was to get everything out of there, which we did. But now Porter's room and Ty and Will's room are complete disasters because I didn't know where else to put it all. All of this led to Baby Elephant #3 which is to get rid of all of the old yucky food that is expired and no longer good. Last night I dumped jar after jar out, and I only did about half of what needs to be thrown out. It made me sad. I nearly cried for all of the hours of hard work I put into preserving that food. Last week I thought I had almost all of my jars full. It has been a goal of mine for a long time to fill all of my jars, but I always buy more or someone gives me more, so I haven't ever done it. I only had a dozen or so of each of my pints and quarts that were empty. Now I have dozens of empty bottles. It was heartbreaking. 

Today I have been trying to look at this from a different perspective. My shelves have been full of food  that doesn't look appetizing anymore. It was just "food" on my shelf. Taking up space, but not really serving a purpose because no one ever wants to eat it. Once I finish this baby elephant everything on my shelf will look fresh and yummy. No more gooey, what is this??? I'm excited for that. But I'm not going to lie, it was hard to dump out all of that hard work. Hopefully baby elephant #1 will solve my rotating problem and I won't have to waste anymore of that hard work. 

I get my new shelves on Friday and I can't wait!! It will make the rest of my Elephant Project go a lot easier if I have a place for things. 

Someday I will conquer! 

There is only one way to eat an Elephant and that is one bite at a time!!

Holy Week

This week I celebrated Holy Week with my family. Holy Week is the last week of Jesus' life. Honestly, I don't think I have ever celebrated or really even paid much attention to Holy Week. I usually only pay attention to Easter morning when we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord.  If I have thought about the other events of this week, it has been in passing and without much reflection or thought. This year however, has been a really hard year for me. It is interesting how our trials bring us closer to the Savior. I haven't even realized it until now...this week...Holy Week. My heart and mind have been so drawn to my Savior this week. My thoughts have been flooded with thoughts of Him. My heart has been full of Gratitude for Him. I have needed Him. I am learning how intimate His sacrifice is for me. 

For my birthday, last week, I asked The Babe to get me an Emmanuel Wreath... it is just a circular wooden ring that holds candles. At the bottom of each candle is a name of Christ, ie: Shephard, Redeemer, Light, Lord of Lords etc. Each day this week we lit 3 candles, we read the name of Christ at the bottom of the candle and then we read about what the Savior was doing each day for the final week of His life. It was powerful and beautiful. It filled my home with the Spirit and it filled my heart with the sweetest gratitude for my Savior. 

Tonight as we lit the last candles and read our last story of Jesus' resurrection I looked down to read the names of the candles we started....Redeemer, First Fruit, RISEN LORD! Our last candle was Risen Lord on Easter Sunday!! I didn't plan it that way. When we started we let the kids light the candles and they just started randomly. That touched my heart and brought a tear to my eye. 

This Holy Week has truly been Holy for me. Even with all of the hustle and chaos. Amid all the fun and tradition, this will be a new tradition for us. We will celebrate Holy Week! I needed my Savior more than ever! I needed His atonement and His lessons of forgiveness. I needed the Healer and the Redeemer. I needed Him to be the Victor. He conquered...for me!